The ramblings of a slightly disgruntled, but mostly not, bleeding heart liberal academic.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Demise of The Academic Jungle

GMP has taken down her blog, The Academic Jungle. In her final post she asserted that academic/science blogging (as she sees it) has little or no significance. That the disappearance of such blogging won't make any difference.*

It is a shame and my post was not meant to be a criticism of GMP. Clearly to blog, or not to blog, is one's own decision. Just as clearly, one person's experiences with blogs and blogging is not necessarily the same as that of someone else.

It's just that I cannot stand it how seriously some people take themselves; blogging has made me take myself too seriously, as it is inherently an exhibitionist activity, and I really dislike it in myself. (Not saying all science bloggers are like that.)

But as you will see, no one's the wiser after my blog is gone. Of course, it was a low profile blog, you can say, but I really think even the very prominent science blogs around are ultimately not that important. If Isis or somoene like that closes up shop, people will huff and puff for a few days and then of course life moves on.

Another issue with the blogging community is that it's an illusion of a community. I could never imagine de-pseudonymizing myself to go drink with a fellow blogger, as people seem to do. And that ultimately makes all this unreal, at least to me.

I could never imagine de-pseudonymizing myself to go drink with a fellow blogger, as people seem to do.

Initially, I couldn't see this happening to me, either, but over the course of the past couple of years I've gotten to know several bloggers away from the blogosphere and now count several of them among my friends. Professionally, it has also been very helpful as a couple of bloggers have read my grants and provided very helpful feedback prior to their submission. YMMV.

if one doesn't like what one has become on blog, this is a great reason to stop. who knows? maybe a bit of reflection and another go under a new guise. Pseuds can do that!

re: having interactions IRL..well, these and even online interactions of a slightly less public nature have a way of helping us to understand some things. such as that perhaps some bloggers who appear to take themselves too seriously don't really, they just come across this way sometimes. also that some of those that act like adolescent asshats most of the time in public have a very helpful and more serious side IRL. blogging is a social business, it involves people so it necessarily must. if one doesn't understand this, one doesn't understand people